ProWomanProLife

  • The Story
  • The Women
  • Notable Columns
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for abortion debate

The Mythical Gender Dichotomy in the Abortion Debate

June 7, 2022 by Lia Milousis Leave a Comment

Last summer, I was privileged to listen in on two fascinating online debates between pro-life and pro-choice activists.

The first debate was hosted by Harvard Right to Life and Massachusetts Citizens for Life. It featured Stephanie Gray Connors, an astoundingly articulate pro-life activist, gifted apologist, published author, and founder of the Love Unleashes Life ministry. The pro-choice representative was infamous ethicist Dr. Peter Singer, who is often known for his controversial comments about disabilities, including asserting that parents should be permitted to euthanize children with disabilities like Down Syndrome and spina bifida.

The second debate was a joint effort by three student clubs—the Health and Medical Law Society, Students for Free Speech York U, and Youth Protecting Youth—at York University. Maaike Rosendal, who works for the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, similarly did an extraordinary job communicating the pro-life position with compassion, clarity, and conviction. The pro-choice representative was Dr. Fraser Fellows, a now retired late-term abortionist.

While I of course appreciated the lengthy and in-depth debate, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a clear gender division. In both debates, the pro-life movement was represented by a female speaker and the pro-choice movement was represented by a male speaker. This seems to run completely contrary to the mainstream mythology that the pro-life movement is filled with grouchy old Catholic men wanting to force their beliefs and rosaries onto women (seen, for instance, in the “keep your rosaries off my ovaries” chant) and that the pro-choice movement is filled with female feminists who are resisting male oppression (see, for example, the “no uterus, no opinion” slogan).

I do not find the fact that these debates featured female pro-life speakers and male pro-choice speakers as inherently problematic or particularly surprising. As someone who has been involved with pro-life activism for over a decade, my experience with the abortion debate is that women make up the vast majority of the pro-life movement (contrary to the stereotypes peddled by abortion advocates). And, as someone who has been a student of this issue for the better part of 13 years, I’m also very alive to the fact that men have been intimately involved in promulgating and perpetuating the practice of abortion (including the all-male group of judges in the Supreme Court of the United States Roe v Wade decision, the mostly male group of judges in the Supreme Court of Canada R v Morgentaler decision, the mostly male politicians who will have crafted the permissive abortion regime in Canada, and the many male abortionists who have performed countless abortions over the course of their careers – including the venerable Henry Morgentaler himself).

And so, we return to these two debates. I think these two debates make it quite clear that there is no such thing as the mythical anti-abortion male mob seeking to enslave the bodies of the pro-abortion female freedom fighters. Stephanie Gray Connors and Maaike Rosendal are eloquent, articulate, and passionate pro-life women who have committed their lives to being a voice for the pre-born, including taking a stand in public debates against the pro-choice men who seek to preserve the status quo on abortion.

In short, contrary to how pro-choice activists and pro-abortion feminists have tried to frame this debate, there are women and men on both sides of the issue. To frame the issue of abortion as being about women only—women’s rights, women’s interests, and women’s efforts—is patently untrue and deliberately misrepresentative of the depth and breadth of the issue.

I am not someone who believes that only women should have a voice on the issue of abortion, which has severe consequences on men and women across the country.

If there can be pro-choice men like Dr. Peter Singer who defend abortion access and pro-abortion men like Dr. Fraser Fellows who perform abortions, then there can also be pro-life men who work to protect vulnerable pre-born children and promote a culture of life.

This is not simply a woman’s issue. It is ultimately a human issue.

This is not simply about women’s rights. It is ultimately about human rights.

Filed Under: All Posts, Featured Media, Featured Posts, Feminism, Other, Political Tagged With: abortion, abortion debate, men, misogyny, pro-choice, pro-life, pro-woman, women

Caesar’s Thumb

February 7, 2012 by Natalie Sonnen Leave a Comment

I thought that this might be a fitting article for my first post on ProWomanProLife, found by accident while I was looking up something about ancient Rome! It’s entitled “Caesar’s Thumb” by the great-grandson of King George V, Lord Nicholas Windsor.

A brilliant article and well worth the read especially in light of Stephen Woodworth’s continued efforts (and motion today in the House of Commons) to re-open the debate that is trying with all its might to remain closed.

And this enforcement of a new status quo succeeds so well due, surely, to benefits enjoyed as a result—benefits of an order that make acceptable even the killing of innocents, by their protectors, on a scale that freezes the imagination. How much then must depend on its remaining so, remaining beyond question? This is the nub of that ideological word choice. So much else can be chosen in a given life if the option to dispose of unwanted children is dependably available.”

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: abortion debate, status of the unborn, Stephen Woodworth

A sad day for Ms. Holloway

March 18, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Kelly Holloway of the York University Student Centre banned an on-campus abortion debate a couple weeks back. It’s back. And on York’s campus. The debate, “Abortion – A Woman’s Right or a Moral Wrong?” will happen today, Tuesday the 18th, 5:30-7:00pm, Curtis Lecture Hall E, Keele Campus. The unfortunate reality is that those who should go, won’t. Kelly’s probably got a date with America’s Top Model. When you’ve got a hard and fast No Thinking rule, best to keep it consistent.

______________________

Andrea stands corrected: I’ll leave our readers to guess which ProWomanProLifer knows her pop culture, but I’ve just been told America’s Top Model is on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays. PWPL apologizes for the error.

_____________________

Véronique clears her throat: That would be America’s NEXT Top Model. Not that I watch these things. Really. It conflicts with American Idol. I mean, it conflicts with some of the serious documentaries I watch on very serious channels. Seriously.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: abortion debate, banning debate, Freedom of speech, York University, York University Student Union

No sirree, it’s not over

March 11, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Thank you. The abortion debate is not over. That’s not what the Supreme Court said. They said there is such a thing as fetal rights, and we ought to have Parliament decide.

It is a start to simply get the word out that the Supreme Court of Canada was not opposed to fetal rights. My job is to show Canadians that granting fetal rights is not opposed to women’s rights. This is not an either/or scenario. Women will thrive when their babies do too.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: , abortion debate, National Post

The squeaky wheels of student unions

March 5, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek Leave a Comment

Reasonable people have reasonable concerns about abortion-and, I might add, about pro-life arguments.

But you don’t find reasonable people at student unions, for the most part. And you certainly don’t find them at “women’s centres.” (That’s a place on campus the vast majority of women just don’t go.)

Yet these are the people who have power, as we’re seeing at York right now. They are the quickest to take offence, and their voices are the loudest. Precisely because they are completely unreasonable, they are heard.

The reasonable students are studying, playing sports and doing whatever it is students do.

These centres represent a fringe, barricade mentality: They are trapped in 60s ideology and unable to move with the times.

I’m glad Ms. Kelly Holloway of the York University Graduate Students Assocation banned the abortion debate: It highlights the strange alternate universe she inhabits for all to see. And I thank her for the national, front-page coverage on the abortion debate that never was.

Perhaps soon we can all move on a little from the notion that pro-lifers are the extreme ones here.

cross-posted to The Shotgun.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: abortion debate, Feminist nonsense, Jojo Ruba, Kelly Holloway, York University Graduate Students Association

Follow Us

Facebooktwitterrssby feather

Notable Columns

  • A pro-woman budget wouldn't tell me how to live my life
  • Bad medicine
  • Birth control pills have side effects
  • Canada Summer Jobs debacle–Can Trudeau call abortion a right?
  • Celebrate these Jubilee jailbirds
  • China has laws against sex selection. But not Canada. Why?
  • Family love is not a contract
  • Freedom to discuss the “choice”
  • Gender quotas don't help business or women
  • Ghomeshi case a wake-up call
  • Hidden cost of choice
  • Life at the heart of the matter
  • Life issues and the media
  • Need for rational abortion debate
  • New face of the abortion debate
  • People vs. kidneys
  • PET-P press release
  • Pro-life work is making me sick
  • Prolife doesn't mean anti-woman
  • Settle down or "lean in"
  • Sex education is all about values
  • Thank you, Camille Paglia
  • The new face of feminism
  • Today’s law worth discussing
  • When debate is shut down in Canada’s highest places
  • Whither feminism?

Categories

  • All Posts
  • Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia
  • Charitable
  • Ethics
  • Featured Media
  • Featured Posts
  • Feminism
  • Free Expression
  • International
  • Motherhood
  • Other
  • Political
  • Pregnancy Care Centres
  • Reproductive Technologies

All Posts

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in